H100i GTX Orientations and Fan locations

Ctrlaltdenied

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Hey guys, got most of my parts now including the H100i GTX.

Watching tinytomlogan's video review of this kit I notice he mounted the radiator in the top of the case with the fans ABOVE the radiator, sucking air through from above (which IMO looks better) and according to the benchmarks achieved nice results.

Now would mounting it in the top of the case with the fans pushing through the radiator from below rather than sucking from above, yield much at all performance difference? If it's only a couple of degrees I'd rather go for looks than pure cooling horsepower.

EDIT: Additionally, would you recommend mounting the hoses in the direction of the optical bay (any cooling benefit at all as the hoses aren't obstructing the rear fan exhaust) like in the below image...

Corsair-H100i-GTX-20.jpg
 
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Its worth trying different configurations. When I got my H100 I tried it 4 different ways. With the fans mounted on bottom as intake then exhaust and then mounted on top as intake then exhaust. Having them mounted on bottom as intake drawing air into the case made up to a 3C difference in temps while running OCCT on my CPU (FX-8150 at the time). Axial fans pull better than they push so youll get more air thru the rad theoretically by having them draw air in rather than trying to push air thru.

Corsair also recommends this configuration on their H100 (not sure about the H100 GTX).

Ive read other people on other forums say they got better results with the fans on top as exhaust so maybe it all depends on your case, the room and its ambient temp and the gear youre using and the heat it puts out in your case. So thats why I think you should try all 4 configurations and see which one works best for you. Its kind of a pain in the balls to drag all that stuff out 4 different times but you only have to do it one and youre done.
 
My airflow is going to be along the lines of the following:

YnBSEbW.png


As far as I see it, the PSU shouldn't produce much heat as it's intaking from below and exhausting out the rear.

The front 2 fans will cover the GPU, PCIe SSD and Sound cards, leaving the only remaining heat source as being the CPU which should be covered by the radiator being at the top with the 2 fans, any excess heat left over should be able to be exhausted by the top rear fan.

I am hoping that the bottom front fan will interact with the 2 front fans airflow and direct it upwards at an angle towards the gpu, depending on my control of the speed to get the flow angle where I want it, it should provide the airflow of 3 seperate fans to the correct areas.

Am I wrong with that assumption?
 
That looks fine. I used to run a 120mm on the bottom as intake but it kinda got in the way sometimes when I would open it up to mess with cable management or something so I finally took it out. It made no difference that I could tell either way in temps so Im not entirely sold on bottom intake fans. And thats with me running a monster heaters like this overclocks 8350 and 290x.

With those front fans working, most air is going to exhaust out the back anyway. Yes heat rises but thats in a static environment. When youve got 2 120mm fans blowing air back, the hot air is going to go that direction. And if the back of your case is mesh like mine, then all the hot air will go straight out the back of the case. So give running the top fans as intake a chance. It might work well for you like it did for me.
 
All of my fans would then be intake, isn't that generally frowned upon? Yes my case has a lot of holes/mesh, so positive pressure would be good. I suppose also with them as intake they would cool the RAM and top of the GPU as well. I would likely need to keep the top rear as exhaust to prevent sucking warm air back in though right?
 
If it works better then who cares if its frowned upon. With the back panel being mesh and having an exhaust fan on it, all the air coming into the case thru the other fans will be pushed straight out the back with no problem. Now if the back was solid and the only way for the air to get out was thru the exhaust fan then youre right and it might not work as well. Like I said, different configurations will work differently depending on your setup, ambient air temps and so on.
 
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